Farmers Movement Archive

KCR plans statewide stir over Centre’s farm laws

Launching a broadside attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government at the Centre, Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) president and Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR) on Tuesday extended solidarity with the farmers agitating on the Delhi borders against the controversial agriculture laws passed by Parliament last year and said his party would launch an agitation against the Centre on November 18 in Hyderabad.“We shall adopt a resolution in the state assembly in its next session demanding that the Centre withdraw the back legislations on agriculture,” KCR told reporters after a combined meeting of TRS legislature party and parliamentary party at Telangana Bhavan in the evening.He alleged that the Centre had been adopting anti-farmer policies all over the country. “When the farmers were protesting against the draconian farm laws at Lakhimpur in Uttar Pradesh, they were crushed to death under the car wheels of the BJP leaders. When the Telangana farmers were agitating for purchase of paddy by the Centre, the BJP leaders attacked them in Nalgonda,” he pointed out.He quizzed the Centre, which was purchasing the entire paddy produced in Punjab, on why it was not doing the same in Telangana. He demanded that the Centre disclose its stand on paddy purchases in various states. He also said he would write a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi questioning the double standards of the Centre on paddy procurement.The chief minister announced that he, along with all the TRS functionaries, including MLAs, MPs, MLCs and other public representatives, would stage a dharna at Indira Park in Hyderabad on November 18 in protest against the Centre’s indifferent attitude towards paddy procurement.“We shall wait for two days after the dharna and then step up the agitation against the Centre in various forms. Simultaneously, we shall educate the farmers on taking up alternative cropping this Rabi season,” he said.It is for the first time in the last two and a half years that the TRS chief is putting up an aggressive front against the BJP and the Centre. After making a futile attempt to float the anti-BJP and anti-Congress federal front before the 2019 general elections, KCR had been maintaining cordial relations with the Centre after Modi returned to power for a second time.In Telangana, the saffron party, which had won just one seat in the 119-member state assembly, lost deposits in as many as 107 assembly seats in the 2018 December elections. It bounced back by winning four of 17 Lok Sabha seats in the 2019 general elections.Subsequently, it won the by-elections in Dubbak and Huzurabad assembly constituencies, and put up an impressive show in Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation last year, thereby emerging as a strong political alternative to the TRS in the state.“As long as the BJP was an insignificant force, KCR ignored it. But now, with the BJP gradually gaining strength in the state, the TRS president started attacking the saffron party,” political analyst Prof K Nageshwar said. “It is a typical strategy adopted by any regional party leader. As long as he has no threat from a national party, he maintains a friendly relationship with it. But once it turns into a potential force, he starts attacking it,” he explained.KCR never adopted any confrontationist stand against the Centre in the last seven years. On the other hand, he extended full support to the Modi government on various issues, including GST, demonetisation, president and vice-president elections and policies related to Covid-19.Even regarding the controversial agriculture laws, the TRS maintained a neutral stand and did not join the other opposition parties in their agitations, including the national shutdown. KCR also agreed to implement central schemes like Ayushman Bharath, which he was reluctant to do initially.“But now with the BJP posing a big threat to his party, KCR started an attack on the BJP and the Centre,” Nageshwar added.Telangana BJP official spokesman K Krishnasagar Rao said the outburst of the chief minister against the BJP and the Narendra Modi government at the Centre was purely a political gimmick to hoodwink the people.“It appears he is preparing the ground for early elections to the state assembly sooner or later, to arrest the growing anti-incumbency among the people,” Rao said.

Hindustan Times

17-11-2021

India